The Archdiocese of Baltimore is the oldest diocese in the United States whose see city was entirely within the nation's boundaries when the United States declared its independence in 1776. The
Holy See granted the Archbishop of Baltimore the right of
precedence in the nation at liturgies, meetings, and
Plenary Councils on August 15, 1859.[2] Although the Archdiocese of Baltimore does not enjoy "
primatial" status, it is the premier
episcopal see of the Roman Catholic Church in the United States of America, as "prerogative of place".

The Holy See then established the
Apostolic Prefecture of the United States on November 26, 1784. Because Maryland was one of the few regions of the colonial United States with a substantial Roman Catholic population, the apostolic prefecture was elevated to become the Diocese of Baltimore—the first diocese in the United States—on November 6, 1789.[6] In 1790, Father Carroll traveled to
England where he was ordained and consecrated as a bishop in Lulworth Castle in Dorset, by Bishop
Charles Walmesley, O.S.B. The first American-born Catholic priest,
William Matthews, was ordained by Carroll at
St. Peter's Pro-Cathedral in the Diocese of Baltimore in 1800.[7]

On July 22, 1939, the City of Washington was erected as a separate archdiocese.[14] The archbishop of Baltimore,
Michael J. Curley, was simultaneously named the first archbishop of the new
Archdiocese of Washington (D.C.) and continued to administer the two archdioceses as a single unit — in persona episcopi.[15] The see was temporarily renamed the Archdiocese of Baltimore-Washington, in recognition of the nation's capital. Eight years later, on November 15, 1947,
Patrick A. O'Boyle was appointed the second archbishop — and first residential archbishop — of the Archdiocese of Washington,[15][14] which consequently began to function as a separate diocese. Therefore, the territory of the "new" archdiocese — consisting of the District of Columbia and the two Washington suburban and three southern counties of Maryland — were permanently separated from the Archdiocese of Baltimore, which was thus reduced to its current extent.[16]

From 1808 until 1847, Baltimore was the only archdiocese in the United States and therefore the entire country was one ecclesiastical province.[6] As the nation's population grew and waves of Catholic immigrants arrived, the Holy See continued to erect new dioceses and elevate certain others to the status of metropolitan archdioceses, which simultaneously became metropolitan sees of new ecclesiastical provinces. Thus, the Province of Baltimore gradually became smaller and smaller. In 1846, the Diocese of Oregon City, now Portland, Oregon was raised to an archdiocese. Following in 1847, the then
Diocese of Saint Louis was elevated to an archdiocese and metropolitan see of the new Province of Saint Louis. Also in 1850, the Diocese of New York was raised to an archdiocese. In 1875, the dioceses of
Boston and
Philadelphia were likewise elevated.

The archdiocese began to publish its diocesan newspaper, The Baltimore Catholic Review since 1913 as the successor to the earlier diocesan publication The Catholic Mirror, published 1833 to 1908. The name has since been shortened to The Catholic Review. In 2012, it changed from weekly to biweekly issues and in December 2015, it transformed again to a monthly magazine.[17]

Plenary Councils of Baltimore

The
Plenary Councils of Baltimore were three national meetings of Catholic bishops in the United States in 1852, 1866 and 1884 in Baltimore, Maryland.

First Plenary Council of Baltimore (1852): among the decrees were one that required immigrant priests to provide a letter of reference from their previous bishops, and a requirement that marriage banns be published.

Second Plenary Council of Baltimore (1866): promulgated the custom of the
Churching of women,the blessing of women after giving birth, focusing on blessing and thanksgiving; and set the age for first communion at ten years of age, as well as, handling other ecclesiastical matters.

Third Plenary Council of Baltimore (1884): was presided over by Archbishop of Baltimore
James Gibbons as Apostolic Delegate. It set six Holy Days of Obligation, and appointed a commission to draft a catechism, and addressed other subjects.

Sexual abuse cases

In 2016 the Archdiocese of Baltimore confirmed that settlements had been paid to past students of
Seton Keough High School who were
sexual abused by Father
A. Joseph Maskell, a priest at the school in the 1960s and '70s.[18][19] In January 1970, a popular English and drama teacher at Archbishop Keough, Sister
Cathy Cesnik, was found murdered in the outskirts of the city of Baltimore. Her murder was never solved and is the topic of a true crime documentary The Keepers that was released on
Netflix on May 19, 2017.[20] A report released by Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro on August 14, 2018 signaled out Bishop and future Cardinal
William Keeler for transferring abusive Pennsylvania priest from the
Diocese of Harrisburg to the Archdiocese of Baltimore.[21] On August 15, 2018, one day after the Pennsylvania report was published, the Archdiocese of Baltimore announced that a pre K-8 Catholic school scheduled to be opened in 2018 and was to be named for Keeler would no longer bear his name.[22] A church memo written in 1995, the year Long was removed from ministry, revealed that accusations of "inappropriate behavior" had surfaced against Long in 1991 and 1992 during his time in the Archdiocese of Baltimore, and the Pennsylvania report noted that Keeler was notified of accusations of Long sexually abusing children when he was serving as Bishop of Harrisburg in 1987.[21]

Prelature

"Prerogative of Place"

The Archdiocese of Baltimore is led by the
prelature of the Archbishop of Baltimore and a corps of
auxiliary bishops who assist in the administration of the archdiocese as part of a larger
curia. Sixteen people have served as Archbishop of Baltimore; the current archbishop is
William E. Lori.[23]

Co-Cathedrals

The archbishop is concurrently the
pastor of the
Cathedral of Mary Our Queen in
Homeland in north Baltimore and the
Basilica of the National Shrine of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary (old Baltimore Cathedral). The older cathedral is located on Cathedral Hill above downtown, near the
Mount Vernon-Belvedere neighborhood. Both are called
co-cathedrals. The Archbishop appoints a
rector for each of the co-cathedrals. The Basilica, built in 1806–1821, is the first cathedral constructed in the United States (within its boundaries at the time). It is considered the
mother church of the United States. During the time from the first bishop
John Carroll's installation in 1790 to the dedication of the old Baltimore Cathedral in 1821, the bishop's throne ("cathedra") was at
St. Peter's Church (first parish in the diocese, founded 1770). It was located two blocks south on the northwestern corner of
North Charles Street and West Saratoga Streets, serving as the pro-cathedral with its attached rectory, school and surrounding cemetery. Old St. Peter's was across the street from the "Mother Church of the Anglican Church" in Baltimore,
Old St. Paul's Church (Anglican/Episcopal) with four successive buildings at the site beginning in 1730 at the southeast corner of Charles and Saratoga, in downtown, overlooking the harbor. St. Peter's Roman Catholic parish was razed in 1841.